Moderator---Shellie
Published in 2019, this novel takes a close look at eating disorders, especially anorexia. It takes you along for the journey of Anna and her stay at 17 Swann Street. Considered a mental illness, this disease can be fatal and is always hard for others to understand. Even the person with the eating disorder has trouble recognizing what is going on and following the necessary treatment.
Anna is a vegan. Her first meal at 17 Swann St. is a bagel smothered in cream cheese. She learns quickly that the treatment house will not cave in to her demands. Her vegan days are over though they allow her to remain a vegetarian. Yogurt is another constant on the menu. That doesn't make Anna happy either. But rules are rules and the residents of Swann St. need the discipline if there is any hope for them getting better.
Publisher's Weekly sums the story up nicely. "In her powerful debut, Zgheib masterfully chronicles the pain of an anorexic’s distorted thinking and intense fear of food in a riveting diarylike structure. Plucked from Paris to St. Louis, former dancer Anna Aubry Roux is 26 years old, married, and in the fight of her life with a severe eating disorder. After fainting in the bathroom and being discovered by her husband, Anna is sent to a residential treatment facility. She is still in denial about her condition, even as she drops to 88 pounds. As she bonds with the other women, including former Olympian hopeful Emm and tortured Ivy League grad Valerie, Anna sees herself in them, and they in her; indeed, it is the residents who show Anna how much she has to live for. Anna’s fits and starts toward recovery are realistically and poignantly depicted."
Swann Street Snacks plus:
Pepperoni pizza, apples, popcorn,
animal crackers, pudding, ice cream
cones with sprinkles, and birthday cake.
"Interesting, but not dry like a text book, with
information concerning anorexia."---Shellie
"Writer was trying too hard to be flowery and
poetic. Immediately irritating."---Anna
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